A few days ago I knew exactly what I was going to write, that Jesus is my everything, my savior, my life and my love and that through faith I follow him. I don’t need proof or reassurance, approval or rationalization because I know in my heart that everything he says is true. All of this is still and will always be what I believe in but today in church I realized that there is so much more.
We had a missionary come in and speak today, and he told a story. In this story, his pastor told him to make a list of what he believes, and he quickly wrote down everything he knew about Christ, then he was told to write down a list of the things that he does, his actions and he said that this list was shorter and a little harder to write. He then brought the lists back to his pastor and his pastor ripped up the list that he wrote about what he believes, and wrote the title “I believe” on top of the second list. He then told this missionary, “What you do is what you believe.”
This story hit me harder than I expected. I began to question myself, asking “Is God in everything I do?” and “Do I do it for him or for me?”. I realized that we all face these questions and our answers are not always going to be what they should be, but the beauty of our God is that he understands this. He tests us and challenges us to follow him in everything we do because of his love for us and I thank him for that each day.
I believe that the Lord not only needs to be in our hearts but we need to serve him through our actions. I believe that this is why we are called to the mission field, to serve God with everything that we have and live out each day for him. I have learned this so deeply in my past trips to Mexico, serving others and bringing the word to those who don’t know it and expect to grow even further in this belief after this trip to Thailand.
